Drawing a sample from a discrete distribution is one of the building components for Monte Carlo methods. Like other sampling algorithms, discrete sampling suffers from the high computational burden in large-scale inference problems. We study the problem of sampling a discrete random variable with a high degree of dependency that is typical in large-scale Bayesian inference and graphical models, and propose an efficient approximate solution with a subsampling approach. We make a novel connection between the discrete sampling and Multi-Armed Bandits problems with a finite reward population and provide three algorithms with theoretical guarantees. Empirical evaluations show the robustness and efficiency of the approximate algorithms in both synthetic and real-world large-scale problems.

That's the reason why I was shocked by a piece of news that came out of London on January 27 this year. AlphaGo, a program created by Google subsidiary DeepMind, defeated the European Go champion, five games to nothing. Maybe you think that's no big deal. After all, it's almost 20 years since IBM's Deep Blue beat Kasparov at chess in 1997. Chess is about logic; Go involves imagination and intuition.

Through a significant expansion of its technical bench, Aarki has further reinforced its commitment to achieving market differentiation through the use of advanced technology. Specifically, Aarki has promoted Dr. Yumio Saneyoshi to senior vice president of product, and Mark Kalygulov to vice president of engineering. The company's proprietary mobile advertising platform - Aarki Encore - is widely recognized as the leading technology in the industry. This platform has received fillip through the addition of Dr. Saneyoshi to Aarki's technical bench. Kalygulov heads the company's engineering team and has been responsible for developing its wide range of software solutions.

The robots are taking over. This is what we've been told. None of us will have jobs soon. The bots will do it all. Me, too, I get the grief.

Alphabet Inc's Google unit, Ford Motor Co, the ride-sharing service Uber and two other companies said on Tuesday they are forming a coalition to push for federal action to help speed self-driving cars to market. Sweden-based Volvo Cars, which is owned by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co, and Uber rival Lyft also are part of the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets. The group said in a statement it will "work with lawmakers, regulators and the public to realize the safety and societal benefits of self-driving vehicles." The coalition said David Strickland, the former top official of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the top U.S. auto safety agency that is writing new guidance on self-driving cars, will be the coalition's counsel and spokesman. "The best path for this innovation is to have one clear set of federal standards and the coalition will work with policymakers to find the right solutions that will facilitate the deployment of self-driving vehicles," Strickland said in the statement.

Robin Li, head of China's web giant Baidu, unveils the firm's intelligent digital assistant, Duer. When Andrew Ng joined Google from Stanford University in 2011, he was among a trickle of artificial-intelligence (AI) experts in academia taking up roles in industry. Five years later, demand for expertise in AI is booming -- and a torrent of researchers is following Ng's lead. The laboratories of tech titans Google, Microsoft, Facebook, IBM and Baidu (China's web-services giant) are stuffed with ex-university scientists, drawn to private firms' superior computing resources and salaries. "Some people in academia blame me for starting part of this," says Ng, who in 2014 moved again to become chief scientist at Baidu, working at the company's research lab in California's Silicon Valley.

Alphabet's Google unit, Ford, the ride-sharing service Uber, and two other companies said on Tuesday they are forming a coalition to push for federal action to help speed self-driving cars to market. Sweden-based Volvo Cars, which is owned by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co, and Uber rival Lyft also are part of the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets. The group said in a statement it will "work with lawmakers, regulators and the public to realize the safety and societal benefits of self-driving vehicles." The coalition said David Strickland, the former top official of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the top U.S. auto safety agency that is writing new guidance on self-driving cars, will be the coalition's counsel and spokesman. "The best path for this innovation is to have one clear set of federal standards and the coalition will work with policymakers to find the right solutions that will facilitate the deployment of self-driving vehicles," Strickland said in the statement.

SEOUL--Humanity has fallen to artificial intelligence in checkers, chess, and, last month, Go, the complex ancient Chinese board game. But some of the world's biggest nerds are confident that machines will meet their Waterloo on the pixelated battlefields of the computer strategy game StarCraft. A key reason: Unlike machines, humans are good at lying. StarCraft, created in 1998, is one of the world's most popular computer game franchises. It pits three races against one another: the humanlike Terrans, the slimy insectoid Zerg and a mystical race with psionic powers called the Protoss.

Startup Zero Zero Robotics just took the wraps off its eye in the sky, the Hover Camera. The company hasn't set a price but expects the lightweight drone (it weighs in at 240 grams) to cost under US 600. The flying camera is a relatively new type of gadget. It all started about a year ago, when startup Lily Camera came out of stealth with its 500 to 1000 camera drone and argued that it wasn't so much a drone as a simple-to-use flying camera. This March, drone-maker DJI introduced the Phantom 4, with autonomous flying and tracking features that essentially make it that company's first flying camera at 1400.

Alphabet Inc.'s Google unit, Ford Motor Co., the ride-sharing service Uber and two other companies said on Tuesday they are forming a coalition to push for federal action to help speed self-driving cars to market. Sweden-based Volvo Cars, which is owned by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., and Uber rival Lyft also are part of the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets. The group said in a statement it will "work with lawmakers, regulators and the public to realize the safety and societal benefits of self-driving vehicles." The coalition said David Strickland, the former top official of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the top U.S. auto safety agency that is writing new guidance on self-driving cars, will be the coalition's counsel and spokesman. "The best path for this innovation is to have one clear set of federal standards and the coalition will work with policymakers to find the right solutions that will facilitate the deployment of self-driving vehicles," Strickland said in the statement.